Bond deal drops budget 27%3 min read

When looking at the city of Sedona’s proposed budget for 2016-17 fiscal year, one number tends to jump out more than others.

During the Tuesday, May 24, Sedona City Council meeting, next year’s tentative budget was unanimously approved. The total budget came in at $38.36 million. This represents a decrease from the current fiscal year of 27 percent. According to Assistant City Manager Karen Daines, the decrease is largely due to the bond re-funding budgeted in the current fiscal year for $9.3 million and a decrease in wastewater capital projects.

“In 2016 we planned for a large general fund bond refinance which required us to include the estimated payoff of the old debt — or $9.3 million in the budget,” she said after the meeting. “Since that expenditure isn’t needed in fiscal year 2017, that expenditure was removed. The capital project budgets for fiscal year 2017 are also considerably lower than the budget for projects planned for fiscal year 2016.”

Daines said once the tentative budget is approved, it cannot be increased but it can be decreased if any necessary changes are needed. The final budget will be approved Tuesday, June 28. This gives the public a month to review the budget and give input if necessary.

In regard to the public, Daines praised the efforts of the citizen budget committee members who sat in on much of the budget process. Those members included Ronald Budnick, Lou Harper, Charlotte Hosseini, Janice Howes, Councilman John Martinez, Ronald Martinez, Robert O’Donnell and Hollie Ploogh.

While the budget decreased, the overall expenditures increased by 17 percent from $16.08 million to $18.83 million. Of that amount, nearly $5 million is for general services that don’t fit into any of the city’s departments and includes contracts with the Sedona Chamber of Commerce, Sedona Public Library and Sedona Community Center.

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The remaining amount is for staff salaries, benefits and day-to-day operations among 12 city departments including consultants and purchasing new city vehicles. Of that, $4.3 million is for the police department, $3.14 million for public works/engineering and $1.64 million for community development.

“While there are some service level expansions included in the fiscal year 2017 operating budget, the largest increases are attributable to moving approximately $800,000 that had previously been budgeted in the streets fund, to the general fund and inclusion of higher-than-normal contingencies [$900,000] for fiscal year 2017,” Daines said.

“The streets transfer was done to separate out the day-to-day operating expenses, such as right-of-way maintenance and street sweeping, from the pavement preservation/repaving program. The contingencies will not be spent unless there are corresponding revenues or unanticipated critical needs.”

Regarding the expenditure increase, Mayor Sandy Moriarty said, “We’re seeing the expenditures going up but the economy is recovering. As the economy recovers, and building reinvigorates again, that increases our costs, which includes hiring more staff.”

To that, City Manager Justin Clifton added it’s also a matter of playing catch-up in regard to capital improvement projects that had been delayed in past years, a greater focus on community development and the community focus areas.

Nearly $10.4 million is budgeted for capital improvement projects — the bulk being $3.11 million for parks and recreation and $3.04 million for wastewater. But within that parks and recreation amount is $1.5 million from development impact fees that are dedicated for that purpose. Daines said at this time there are no proposed projects to use that money but instead it’s a budget placeholder in the event a purchase is made this next year.

Also included in capital improvement projects fund is $1.7 million for drainage and $1.5 million for public works projects.

Larson Newspapers

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